SUPERHERO COMICS AND THE SPANISH TRAGEDY. This past summer I had a terrific surge of fiction-writing energy, after a long spell of torpor. I’m still working on lots of fun stories, and I love it. So much more fun than journalism! I’ve had a host of ideas that I really like, jumping-off points for stories. Right now I’ve got two rough drafts done, two mostly-done, and seven in various stages of draft or notes. This is wildly exciting, given that... Read more

SSM: FRIENDSHIP. This is the last SSM post for today. Like I said in the “setup” post below, today’s posts are long. None of the later posts will be as long as these–they’ll be paring knives, not broadswords. So: Why do I keep talking about friendship when I talk about same-sex marriage? Unqualified Offerings, in an understandable but way off-base interpretation, writes, “Eve says, ‘marriage is not friendship’ and ‘marriage is about sex,’ but this is only relevant if she... Read more

SSM: BOYZ II MEN. Another long piece, about how making marriage unisex will change the male quest for masculinity: A good friend tells this story from his college days: He and several guy friends were drinking pitchers of beer in a local bar. They had one too many, and the leader of their intrepid band devised a challenge. Hoisting his glass, he declared, “Whosoever is a man will bang his head on this table three times!” You can guess what... Read more

SSM: MY BASIC POSITION. This is long but I think it’s pretty plain-spoken: Americans still think the debate over same-sex marriage is about gay people. We still think it’s about your best friend who’s just said she’s a lesbian, or your son who’s just come out. We still think it’s about whether homosexual acts are sinful. It’s not. The same-sex marriage debate is about marriage, above all else. It’s about a view of marriage that was first promoted by and... Read more

SSM: THREE TYPES OF ARGUMENT. Throughout these posts, and previous posts on this site, I’ve been making three different kinds of claim: 1) Marriage was not designed to respond to the desires of and pressures on same-sex couples, and we shouldn’t expect it to do so. This is at once the strongest and the weakest claim. Strongest, because it strikes me as glaringly obvious! As Maggie Gallagher has pointed out, even societies that accepted or valorized (male) homosexual conduct did... Read more

SSM: THE SETUP. This is the start of a series of posts in which I’ll lay out my reasons for opposing same-sex marriage, and answer other people’s objections. I’m not sure how long it will take, so feel free to jump in whenever you want. Today’s posts will probably be among the longest in the series–I hope to keep most of these bite-sized, but today I’m laying out my own position and that takes more time than a FAQ-like reply... Read more

POETRY WEDNESDAY: From John Donne, “A Lecture Upon the Shadow.” It’s not one of my favorites of his, but I like the second stanza and the end a lot. Sorry about the lack of formating. Stand still, and I will read to thee A lecture, Love, in Love’s philosophy. These three hours that we have spent, Walking here, two shadows went Along with us, which we ourselves produced. But, now the sun is just above our head, We do those... Read more

HAPPY ENDING: Or something. I’ve posted the entire rough draft of “What You Can Do for Your Country.” You can read the whole thing in order here; or just get the last segment here. Note the big gap in time between the last segment and the previous ones. As always, your comments and (especially) criticisms are welcomed. This is a rough draft, which means that I already know I didn’t nail it, so please don’t hold back if you think... Read more

And though each spring doe add to love new heate, As princes doe in times of action get New taxes, and remit them not in peace, No winter shall abate the springs encrease. –John Donne, “Loves Growth” Read more

EXISTENTIAL CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS: Motime Like the Present is a wiggy blog dealing with, um, Calvinism, antinomianism, and Silver Age Marvel comics. In other words, he’s insane in a way that I deeply respect. I find Calvinism wildly awful and distressin’, and I don’t rightly buy much of MLTP’s analyses of superhero comics. Nonetheless, he is a worthwhile theological-superheroic test-your-strength machine. Good stuff. Blogrolled tonight. Read more